HC reserves verdict on plea of Super Bazaar management

A bench of Chief Justice D Murugesan and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw reserved its judgement on the petition of M/s Writers and Publishers Ltd, challenging the single judge bench decision asking it not to bar workmen from reporting to duty.

Senior advocate C S Sundaram, appearing for the company, said, "The notice (asking workmen not to report on duty) was in conformity with the Supreme Court order which had asked the company to pay arrears to the employees and employ them for three years."

This co-operative society could not be "revived" and hence, the notice was justified, he said, adding "if there was any confusion, they (workers' union) should have gone to the Supreme Court seeking clarification of the order passed on February 26, 2009. The writ petition was not maintainable."

Responding to the plea, the counsel for workers' union Super Bazaar Karamchari Hiteshi Sangathan said, "the Supreme Court wanted to revive the co-operative society on the petition of workers and it cannot be said that it wanted workmen to lose jobs after three years."

"They wanted to take over the real estate of co-operative society worth over Rs 1,000 crores and did not bother about the ramification of the decision on workmen," he said, the notice was "illegal" and has rightly been stayed. (More)